Railroad-ticket



(No Mdel.)

RAILROAD TICKET.

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\VH.L1AM A. MEGRATH, OF MACON, GEORGIA.

RAI LROAD-TICKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 396,591, dated January 22, 1889.

Application filed February 14, 1888. Serial No. 264,018. (No model.) Patented in Belgium April 3, 1888, No. 81,278.

"To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, XYTLLIAM A. MEGRATH, a citizen oi' the United States, residing at Ma con, in the county of Bibb and State of Georgia, have invented certain new and useful 1mprovements in Railroad-'iickets, (for which I have obtained Letters Patent `in Belgium April 3, 1888, No. 81,2"8;) and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in railroad-tickets, and particularly to that class of tickets known as mileage-tickets, entitling the purchaser during a limited term to ridel for a certain aggregate number of miles upon the road of the company issuing it.

Prior to my invention it has been proposed to issue such tickets in the form of a book containing separable coupons, each coupon bearing upon its face its own number, the number of the ticket, and, generally, initials or the like, designating the road issuing the ticket, A

and such other printed matter as may be found convenient in identifying or auditing the coupons. Each of the coupons has marked upon its surface numerals from 0 to 9, inclusive, each of said numerals representing a mile of travel, thereby dividing the entire ,ticket into decimal parts, so that in detaching or lifting the number of coupons corre` spending to the dist-ance traveled in any particular instance the number of coupons to be so detached may be readily calculated by the conductor.

In some instances it is evident that the number of miles covered by a given journey will be intermediate between decimals of the entire ticket, and that consequently the numbers on the detached coupons will not indicate to the auditor, when turned in, the full last lifted, thereby preventing the passenger from fraudulently claiming that a greater number of coupons have been lifted, thus securing' a longer ride than he is justly entitled to.

1n the accompanying drawings,illustrative of my invention, Figure l represents the saine as embodied in book form, the book being shown as partially open in order more fully to illustrate the invention. Fig. 2 represents the same in perspective, partly broken away. Fig. 8 represents one of the sheets of sepa rate supplemental coupons; and Fig. 4 represents a portion of the main ticket, showing also the auditors check, partly broken away.

Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings,AB indicate the covers inclosing the main body of the ticket and the supplemental coupons. These covers are connected by a flexible hinge, C, of leather, fabric, or the like, and at apoint near said hinge to one of said covers there is attached an elastic band, D. The main body of the ticket is at one of its extremities pasted or otherwise united to the cover A at a point near the hinge C. This is the only point of connection between the ticket and either cover, so that the ticket, in order to be included wit-hin the book, is folded, as indicated in Fig. l, each fold being of a length approximating as n'early as may be to the length of the book-covers. Then the covers are closed, as indicated in Fig. 2, the elastic band D holds the folded ticket in place readily,while still conveniently permitting the conductor to slip out from under the elastic band as many of the folds as are necessary to be detached for the particular trip. Then a single coupon, or any number less than a fold, is to be detached from the ticket, the peculiar location of the band D permits this to be done without loosening the folds of the ticket from their temporary binding, thereby obviating the inconvenience of having the folds slip out from the book, as might sometimes happen.

The supplemental coupons are upon separate sheets or leaves corresponding in length to the book-covers, and eachv sheet is attached to the cover B of the book at its inner edge, as indicated. The main body of the ticket is IOO first used by the traveler, this check is retained by the conductor for transmission to the auditor.

The coupons making up the entire ticketfour of which coupons, F G Il J, are shown in Fig. 4-are separated from each otherby dividing-lines, as shown, but are united in a single continuous sheet or strip adapted to be folded within the covers, as shown anddescribed with reference to Fig. Il. The coupons and auditors check are each provided with a number corresponding to the number of the ticket,

corner of the said coupons and check. The coupons may also conveniently ybear initials and such other printed matter as may be found necessary for their ready identification in auditing. They are numbered consecutively, as shown, beginning with the number 1 for the second coupon. This number indicates to the auditor theparticular coupon or couponslifted and enables them tobe arranged at 'his office when they are turned in, so as to reproduce the original ticket. Each coupon is provided with a row of numbers ranging consecutively from 0 to 0. If, now, a passenger should Vride for a distance, say, of fourteen miles, beginning with the first coupon, `the conductor can only `lift the first coupon, F. My ticket, however, provides a means to indicate to the auditor upon said ticket F the number of miles traveled in excess of said coupon. This is effected in the following manner: The conductor vfolds the ticket along 'the line cy l) until the backs of coupons F and Gr are in contact with each other. lle then punches out the figure -it in coupon G and simultaneously punches out a corresponding portion of the coupon F, as indicated atc. It will be noted that the perforation c is directly over the numeral 4 on coupon F. This will indicate tothe auditor that upon the coupon G the number 4 has been punched, thereby showing that a distance of four miles in excess of the-coupon F has been `traveled upon the -trip for which the said coupon F vwas lifted. It will be noted that the numbers Oto k9 upon the coupons are located exactly above one another and so disposed with regard to the dividing-line between the coupons that when folded back upon said dividing-line a punch-mark through a number upon one of 'the upper coupons will give a corresponding` perforation exactly above and near the like numberupon theneXt lower coupon.

At the left-'hand side of each coupon is located transversely thereof a series of numbers, 0 lto l9, as indicated. The purpose of these :numbers isas follows: After the cond'uctorhas lifted a'nuniber of `coupons'corre- 4sponding'to the number of fmilesannounced 'by'the `passenger as'theeXte'nt-of his trip, he 'punchesupon the last'undetached coupon by means of the said series of numbers the distance for which he has just collected coupons. Thus, if after using a portion of his ticket the passenger announces his intention to ride one hundred and twenty miles, the conductor, after lifting coupons corresponding to that number of miles, punches from the outermost row of figures upon the last undetached coupon the number l, from the intermediate row the number 2, and from the inner row the number 0. This punching serves as a check on the passenger, as he cannot then pretend thatthe conductor has raised a larger number of coupons than that representing one hundred and twenty miles, and thereby secure a lonas indicated at 0000, at the upper right-hand ger ride than he is justly entitled to.

The supplemental coupons indicated in Fig. 3 bear the same ticket-number and lettering as the coupons of the main ticket. The purpose of these supplemental coupons is as follows: The conductor, after lifting a number of coupons from the main ticket corresponding to the distance to be traveled, writes upon one of these supplemental coupons the distance so traveled, andthe said supplemental coupon is handed by the tr( veler to the porter of the drawing-room or sleeping car vat the time that the porter receives the drawingroom or sleeping car check. The traveler, therefore, after having the main coupons lifted, need not be disturbed until the end of his journey, and retaining himself the book of unused coupons said book is not liable to be lost by the porter, nor can any pretext be afforded the passenger for claiming that when out of his custody someof the-coupons have becn removed from -the book. Again, these supplemental coupons may be used by the conductor when the distance traveled for any particular trip is less than the number requisite to justify the' lifting' of one of the main coupons. In such case the conductor, after punching ont upon the main coupon the distan ce traveled, in theordinary manner, as hereinbefore described, writes -upon one of these supplemental coupons the number of miles thus punched, and then lifts said supplemental coupon so that it maybe turned in to the auditor. By this expedient the auditor is furnished with an immediate record of every small trip without being obliged to wait until the main coupon is turned in upon a succeeding trip.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- 1. A railroad-ticket consisting of a series of IOO IIO

coupons having distinguishing characters,

each coupon being provided with a series of numbers, each number indicating a mile of travel, and corresponding numbersbeing arranged in a line 011e above theot-her upon the several coupons, and at such a distance from the dividing-line betweenthe coupons that on folding the coupons back to back upon said dividing-line a punch-mark-'throughthe-number upon the upper coupon will lbe reproduced exactly above and in immediate proximity to the corresponding number on the lower coupon, substantially as set forth.

2. A railroad-ticket consisting of a series of coupons bearing distinguishing characters, each coupon being provided with a series of numbers, each number indicating a mile of travel, said series being arranged iinmedi` ately below the longitudinal center of its coupon, and corresponding numbers in the several series being arranged in a line one above the other, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

3. A railroad-ticket consisting of a series of coupons provided with numbers indicating miles of travel, and each coupon being provided with additional numbers representing hundreds, tens, and units, whereby on the last undetached coupon an indication may be given of the number of miles just honored by the conductor, substantially as set forth.

4. A railroad-ticket consisting of a series of coupons bearing distinguishing characters,

each coupon being provided with a series of 

